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Ottawa fails to deliver ‘just-in-time’ immigration

Five years after an overhaul of the federal skilled workers’ program, the system is still plagued by backlogs and long processing times.

IN 2008, then Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, now the Minister of Employment and Social Development, revamped the federal skilled workers' program and said applications would be processed under 12 months. (CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS)

“We expect new federal skilled worker applicants, including those with arranged employment, to receive a decision within six to 12 months,” then Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in 2008, heralding a new era of Canadian immigration that would respond quickly to labour market needs.

The remnant applicants in the pre-2008 backlog have to wait even longer, from 62 months in Morocco to 97 months in Turkey, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Philippines, India and Jamaica. European applicants don’t fare any better, with wait times in Poland at 89 months; London, 87 months; Paris and Vienna at 74 months.

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While critics are not surprised or impressed, with Ottawa’s plan to roll out the new “Expression of Interest” (EOI) system in 2015 to create a pool of skilled candidates for employers’ pick, many fear the government will again try to get rid of the new backlog with yet another bill.

As of this summer, there were 23,817 federal skilled workers’ applications in the “inventory” awaiting a decision at Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s top 10 visa processing offices. All but 1,233 of those cases were accumulated after the program overhaul.

“We had a backlog of more than 640,000 people in the FSW program. If we had not acted, this backlog would be more than 800,000 by today, with wait times in excess of seven years,” said Citizenship and Immigration spokesperson Sonia Lesage in an email.

“The government is committed to creating a just-in-time immigration system that is responsive to Canada’s economic needs. The large backlog of applications that has accumulated under the FSW program is impeding the responsiveness of Canada’s immigration system.”

Maria, 27, a telecommunication manager from Moscow, applied under the revamped federal skilled workers program in August 2012 when the average processing time was then just 15 months. She was shocked it has now been extended to more than 25 months.

“For young immigrants like us, every year is valuable for our career. When we applied, we had expectations and we planned our lives around those expectations. We feel we’ve been misled,” said Maria, who asked her last name be withheld for fear of repercussions on her application. “It’s frustrating.”

Mario Bellissimo, president of the Canadian Bar Association’s immigration section, said the government has miscalculated. Canada only allows a fixed number of immigrants under the economic class, he said, and priorities are given to programs such as the Provincial Nominee Programs and Canadian Experience Class at the expense of the federal skilled workers.

“The government keeps saying 12 months, but that’s not the reality,” said Bellissimo, who speculates Ottawa will introduce another bill to get rid of the new backlog before the EOI system starts in January 2015.

“They offer the termination of applications as panacea, but it’s not going to solve the issue if they don’t raise the overall number (of admissions) for federal skilled workers.”

Ottawa is banking on the EOI to materialize its “just-in-time” immigration system.

“We are going to be saying to the whole world, if you’re interested in coming to Canada, tell us, express interest, and then we’ll be inviting those from this very large pool that we know we really need . . . to process those applications within six months,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said at an event in Toronto last month.

“It will be challenging. It is an ambitious target. But we know we can do it, and we need to do it.”

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